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My cousin is one of the recent Nursing Board Exam passers. He told me it is not easy to look for jobs since most hospitals require some level of experience from the nurses before they hire them. Some hospitals even ask for money before they let the inexperienced nurses to work for them (sort of like a training fee). I can just imagine the surprise of some nursing graduates and their parents who thought that after graduation and passing the board exams, they can already start reaping the benefits of their hard work...

Fortunately, there is an ongoing legislation that proposes to end this kind of malpractice. Read the article below from Inquirer.net.

A lawmaker is seeking to stop the practice of some hospitals from demanding nursing graduates pay for training to let them get the work experience necessary to qualify for jobs abroad.

Laguna Rep. Edgar San Luis has filed a bill penalizing public and private hospitals that make the new nurses pay them, saying it was tantamount to exploitation.

“No matter what hospital administrators call the pernicious practice—training, skills building, volunteer work or whatever—what they are doing is plain and simple exploitation,” San Luis said in a statement.

Hospital experience is a requirement for overseas employment.

Under San Luis’ bill, hospitals that charge nurses would face a maximum fine of P100,000, and their administrators a maximum one-year jail term.

The penalty would be imposed on the president or treasurer of the hospital. If the offender is an association, corporation and the like, the penalty would be levied on whoever is responsible for the violation.

A warning would be issued to a hospital for a first offense. For a second violation, its license to operate would be suspended for at least six months. The hospital’s license would be canceled if it repeats the offense a third time.

Nursing graduates who had been made to pay the hospital would be refunded the full amount, plus interest of six percent per year until fully paid.

A hospital would also be required to pay fresh nursing graduates a salary not less than the minimum wage. The court may also fix the rates to be paid for services rendered.

According to San Luis, the lack of nursing jobs in the Philippines has forced many of them to look for jobs overseas.

In 2008, there were more than 67,000 nursing graduates in the country, but only 27,765 passed the nursing board exams, he said.

He said many nursing graduates had ended up in jobs outside their field. They now work in call centers, retail stores and non-professional positions.

Even those who managed to go abroad had not always worked as nurses with some ending up as caregivers, dental assistants and nursing aides, he said.